Advertising in the War

Advertising, the vital $450,000,000-a-year industry which sparks most other industries and pumps lifeblood into the nation's press, had great trouble converting itself to war. In the first shock of conversion--as happened in many of the industries it represents--much advertising was terrible: hysterical, ridiculous, extreme. But U.S. advertising, whose virtues are seldom praised outside its own precincts, has so successfully weathered the crisis that by last week much of it had reached new high standards.

Lures, Snares & Baits. Before the war advertisements were written mainly to entice people into buying things. Powerful and persuasive, advertising improved the nation's health; made the U.S. conscious of halitosis, dishpan-hands, B.O., floating power, coffee nerves, the delights of motoring; advertising gave birth to many a new household word, taught Americans to eat better things, have more comfortable homes, use gadgets instead of elbow grease.

When war came, some experts thought at first that advertising itself might die: many a firm, no longer having goods to sell to civilians, no longer had an ostensible reason for continuing to advertise. But advertising did not seriously decline. In 1940 advertisers spent $450,000,000; in 1941, $469,000,000; in 1942, $440,000,000.

Advertising held up because businessmen well knew what had happened to firms which had stopped advertising in World War I: the makers of such now-nearly-forgotten products as Sapolio, Pear's Soap, Omega Oil suffered; some even died.

With some exceptions, many of the first U.S. wartime advertisements were compromises because advertisers were not quite sure just what they were trying to do. Firms with goods to sell wanted their products given a "war angle"; firms with no products wanted to keep their prestige intact. Some preened themselves in print, crowing ridiculously about their war roles. Some typical examples, out of hundreds:

> "... In a threatening world of shifting tides and ceaseless uncertainties, what man doesn't wonder ... 'Is anything the same?' . . . But still there are lots of life's good things. . . . There's Kaywoodie Briar."

> In a Cast Iron Pipe Research Association advertisement a girl, pictured in a departing soldier's arms, said: "Promise to take care of yourself!" The soldier replied: "Don't worry! I'm as tough as Cast Iron Pipe."

>"... If the Axis powers were to win this war, it would be a long, long time before you could buy any new typewriter!

"By manufacturing ordnance now, Royal is hastening the day when you, a free man living in a free country, can once more walk into any store in the land and buy anything you want!

"THAT, AS WE SEE IT, is WHAT THIS WAR is ALL ABOUT!"

>Cigaret company ads were generally extreme. For a time the main occupation of soldiers, sailors and marines seemed to be the measuring of long Pall Malls against regular-sized cigarets.

Advertising's New Mood. To see the evidence of advertising's conversion to war, the U.S. needs only to read its magazines and newspapers. In often stirring prose, copywriters today tell, and tell well, the story of the nation's war production miracles. They carefully explain such complexities as point rationing. They have sold billions of dollars' worth of war bonds (and the campaign has really only begun). They have pointed up the abiding faith of the people in better years ahead.

Reasons for this change:

Insight. Advertisers, like other human beings, are inherently patriotic and sensible. Inevitably they saw the nation's real needs--strong morale, capacity production, patriotic sacrifice--and began to shape their advertising to fit it.

Information. The Advertising Council was organized early last year by advertising agencies, advertisers and the four media (newspapers, magazines, radio and outdoor). Its purpose': to get advertisers to cooperate with the Government. The Council finds out what ideas the Government wants put across, then persuades advertisers to devote their space to the Government's problems. Said the Council's trend-conscious Chairman Chester James LaRoche, 50, veteran New York adman:

"There are two channels through which information can be transmitted to the people: first, the newspapers, magazines and radio; second, advertising. Of these, advertising is the most effective because it is most direct. Let's say. for example, the Government wants to tell the people about shoe rationing. The news is carried in the papers and over the radio with a varied emphasis. One editor may think it is worth a spread on Page One; another may decide it worth only a half column inside. Advertising can carry the message to the people with predetermined emphasis. We can make the advertisement just as big or little as we want, and we can run it one day or 20."

Tax Deductions. The third factor in advertising's transition was indirect Government pressure. Any firm is entitled to tax-deduct, as a business expense, any reasonable amount of advertising expenditure. In the Treasury Department's hands is the power to say what amount is "reasonable." Businesses with no civilian goods to sell in wartime knew the Treasury would fix an unsentimental eye on large amounts of money spent to advertise products no longer being produced. And businesses still making civilian products also knew that the Treasury, aware of inflation, would look down its nose at advertising urging people to spend. Both types of firm, naturally, tended to shape their advertising in Government-approved molds.

Thus the nation's trade names and trademarks enlisted in total war, and advertising became an effective home-front weapon. Some outstanding recent examples:

>American Airlines' magnificent air map of the world, without borders or oceans; Consolidated Aircraft's similar air-age globe ("No spot on earth is more than 60 hours from your local airport"); Pan American's series on the postwar world, written by such world citizens as John Dewey and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

>The New Haven Railroad's famed "The Kid in Upper 4." In simple but stirring rhetoric it made readers understand why trains are crowded--because The Kid, a soldier, is "our most honored guest."

>Del Monte's ad urging Americans to grow Victory Gardens. The woman in the ad is rolling up her sleeves and saying: "I'm going to have more fruits & vegetables than my ration book allows. . . . And I'm going to do it the patriotic way." Heinz on point rationing: one ad, entitled "Food Buying Simplified!", offered an educational rationing budget form.

>The Texas Co.'s picture of a fat, repulsive Teuton beside a text saying: "You've got a real, personal adversary to fight just as one of our marines who comes face to face with a Jap in the jungle. Your opponent is a 'man-in-the-street' in Berlin ... or Tokio. . . . It's you against him--your 'morale' against his. ['Morale'] means driving under 35 miles per hour--and not grousing about it. It means cutting out pleasure driving--with pleasure. It means saving fuel oil, living in a colder home--with a warmer heart. ... If that's 'morale,' we've got it --to spare."

-> Hood Rubber Co.'s series "How To Make Your Rubber Footwear Last Longer." Like many a British wartime advertisement, this one mixed humor with solid advice. A cartoon showed two armed guards toting a padlocked, ironbound chest into a house; the housewife was calling upstairs: "It's the men with your galoshes, dear!"

More to Come. This is only the beginning. Before next month's end one of the greatest single advertising campaigns ever undertaken will be launched by hundreds of advertisers in all fields: a new drive, coordinated by the Advertising Council, for war bond sales. Its probable goal: conversion of 15% of all pay checks into war bonds. Moreover, within the next few weeks newspapers and magazines will sprout scores of ads aimed straight at the hearts of the nation's newest wartime problems. Food companies, for example, will devote increasing amounts of space to easily understood explanations of point rationing and nutrition. Packers, with the blessing of OPA. will soon issue ads designed to make people understand: 1) meat rationing; 2) the perils of black markets.

In doing these things, no advertiser is being 100% philanthropic. Every firm admittedly has a secondary reason for continuing to advertise; by doing so he keeps his trade name alive, and will be ready for the postwar markets.

But for the duration, advertising has largely forgotten competition and is promoting one common product: the U.S.

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